How to think outside the square..

Post Reply New Topic

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/100305 ... ban-island

This piece of local news went viral world wide. New way to entertain overseas visitors.. offshore.

Not exactly original.

The US coasts were dotted with floating speakeasies anchored just beyond the 3 mile limit of US territorial waters: yachts serving as night clubs that served liquor, during Prohibition in the 1920's.

Apples and oranges. There is quite a difference between boats and building a giant sand island to my way of thinking, if not yours.

same basic idea. But more hare brained (but also involving less capital than a yacht).

The island is only a hundred yards from the shore, so it aint out in international waters.

Another problem is that since it IS an island (manmade though it maybe) it is therefore land, and therefore both not in ANY "waters" (intl or otherwise), and is part of the land of New Zealand. So it isn't even legally "offshore".

It would be like new land created by lava flowing into the sea from Hawaiian volcanoes (considered a new territory of the USA), or new land created in Jersey by landfilling marshes (also a territorial extension of the US).

Now these revelers could try to get around that by declaring their new man made island to be "an independent country". Separate from New Zealand. Back in the Seventies some fisherman landed on existing natural island called Outer Bald Island off of Nova Scotia and declared it to be the new nation of "Outer Baldonia". Even drew up a constitution. Its Bill of Rights included "the right to get drunk", "the right to tell big fish stories", and "the right to be believed".

Bah and humbug then? Ok..

I thoght maybe the title of this thread might have something to do with objectivie independent thinking which I unbiasedly exell at.

you're no fun. You just throw in the towel.

I was hoping that you would rise to the occasion, and cite legal precedent to counter my points.

Hmmmm...

There isnt much they could do. One tack they could try would be to claim that their new island is not part of New Zealand, but is the last remaining enclave of New Zealand's old colonial ruler: Great Britain. They could claim the sandbar is part of the UK, where drinking is legal, and like that. Might fly.

They're not thinking big enough...
The Principality of Sealand <clicky> has been going since the 1960's off the British coast, and they don't show any sign of giving up yet!

Just read the article. Mercenaries, hostages, treason, payouts...it's so ridiculously funny it should be a movie.

Now! THAT's "thinking out of the box".

That "country" has even become like China, and Korea! It even has two rival governments!

He he, I could quite imagine Sealand as an outpost of SPECTRE from the Bond movies, with elevators inside the legs of the fort leading to a secret underground base. I wonder if "Prince Roy" likes to sit around stroking a very fluffy white persian cat!

In the 60's there were quite a few of the offshore radio stations that led to the start of Sealand. UK state controlled radio didn't play the cool new music that the "kids" were into, and private stations couldn't get licenses, so pirate stations set themselves up on boats and old forts just outside territorial waters where the law couldn't touch them. Quite a few of the UK's most popular radio DJs started out there, then became "legit" after the state controlled stations started targeting younger audiences and licences for independent stations became available.

I think I have seen pictures of that but never knew what it was.